


Home Is Where The Heart Is (Or Where Your Adorable Antivan Elf Is)

by GaHoolianGirl



Series: A Warden and his Assassin [10]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Dorks in Love, Elements of found family, M/M, Returning Home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 05:59:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6788791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GaHoolianGirl/pseuds/GaHoolianGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The ground was soft beneath his feet, a recent rain having graced Highever’s fields. Gideon breathed in the air deeply, the earthy and familiar scent bringing memories into his head, some pleasant and others...not so. The castle looked so far away from here, a magnificent shadow in the distance.</i>
</p><p> </p><p>  <i>“Highever...” he said under his breath, inhaling sharply, “Home.”</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Is Where The Heart Is (Or Where Your Adorable Antivan Elf Is)

**Author's Note:**

> As always, I love these dorks. The title is also really cheesy but accurate

The ground was soft beneath his feet, a recent rain having graced Highever’s fields. Gideon breathed in the air deeply, the earthy and familiar scent bringing memories into his head, some pleasant and others...not so. The castle looked so far away from here, a magnificent shadow in the distance.

“Highever...” he said under his breath, inhaling sharply, “Home.”

He felt a hand beside him grab his own and intertwine their fingers. Zevran pressed his head into Gideon’s shoulder. “It does seem like a nice castle. Sturdy and proud. Very Fereldan, if I may say.”

Gideon laughed softly, absentmindedly rubbing Zevran’s palm with his thumb, “I’ve heard it said that if you want to truly experience Ferelden, you need to visit Highever,” he laughed again, louder, “Though I am hardly an unbiased party.”

“Well then,” Zevran said with a smile in his tone, “Will I be a more suitable judge?”

Gideon grew somber again, looking out to the castle, “We’ll see, I suppose. Highever...I thought I would die out there, and never see this place again,” he sighed, “Though that may have been me wanting to avoid my responsibilities as teryn. Thank the Maker for Fergus.”

“You make a fine leader, my Warden.”

“Of a handful of what is essentially a small militia. Not a teryn full of people!”

“If I’m not mistaken,” Zevran raised an eyebrow, “You lead an army into battle. The largest gathered for several hundred years, if Arl Eamon is to be believed.”

Gideon kissed his nose, a small smile on his lips, “I do hate it when you’re right, Zev.”

“Fortunately for you, that is a rare enough occurrence.”

“Nonsense. You’re one of the most astute people in my acquaintance.”

“If you say it, it must be so. Alas, then, you are doomed to hate me forever.”

“That’s something I _know_ is impossible!”

Zevran chuckled loudly, throwing his head back. It was a noise Gideon wished to hear forever.

“Shall we go?”

Gideon took a deep intake of breath, “On, then.”

* * *

 The grounds were as he remembered them, though scorched and with remnants of the Howe crest still littered about. Servants, human and elf both, flitted around them, reparations being the lengthy process they were. A few of them he even recognized...

“Nan...” he breathed, looking at the old woman in wonderment. “How’d you, how’d...”

As if his whispering summoned her attention, she turned her head, and she did something Gideon had never seen, not in his 26 years of life.

She dropped her laundry.

“Gideon.”

Her voice was flat, but her eyes shone heavily with emotion, and she staggered towards him, hands shaking. “I know you saved ev’ryone, but seeing you, my boy...”

Her voice quivered, and Gideon realized just how much he’d changed. This woman had intimidated him his whole life, had been one of the few authority figures in the whole castle willing to curtail the young nobleman’s antics. Now, she felt like a distant memory, one that was staring him in the face.

“Hello, Nan. I’m...I’m home now.”

She coughed into her hand and straightened her back, “That you are. It’s good to see you in one piece. From the stories we got here, I expected you to return in chunks!”

He laughed, and stepped forward, enveloping the frail old woman in a hug. She gasped, and sounded ready to reprimand him for hugging a servant like that, but bit back her words to embrace him. Whether or not she would ever admit it, she had missed him too.

After he released her, he spun around to smile at Zevran, like a proud child showing his companion his favorite spot. Nan’s eyes followed him.

“A new servant?” she looked at his daggers, “A bodyguard?”

Gideon clenched his eyes shut and groaned; his romanticized nostalgia for Highever and its inhabitants had left out this small detail. He reached for Zevran, wrapping an arm around his shoulder, “No, my...” he took a deep breath of air, “my lover, Nan.”

Zevran looked up at him with wide, but approving, eyes. He had half-expected for Gideon to lie initially, but his Warden always had ways of surprising him.

“I see,” the old woman said with a blank face.

Gideon gripped Zevran’s shoulder tighter, “And he should be treated as any other guest. I am going to talk to Fergus about the treatment of elven servants here, as well.”

Everyone in earshot looked to the nobleman now, but none so in awe as a young serving girl who he happened to cross eyes with. Her gaze was questioning, _Could this shemlen truly care?_

 _I promise_ , he tried to convey with his expression.

Nan said nothing to this, but gave them a gesture to follow, most likely leading them to Fergus.

* * *

 Walking through the halls caused him more pain than he could have anticipated. He paused as they passed through the hall that housed the family quarters. All around him was where he and his family had slept for decades...

“Mother...father...”

Zevran’s hand found it’s way to his and he held tightly onto that lifeline as he knocked lightly on the door of the the study -- Fergus’ study, the one that once belonged to Bryce Cousland.

* * *

“Little brother!” Fergus exclaimed happily, standing up so quickly his chair scratched against the floor. He seemed almost _too_ eager to greet him. As he approached, Gideon could begin to see why; bags had started to form under the new teryn’s eyes, covering puffy redness.

_Stress and tears. Something I know all too well._

“Hello, big brother. It’s...good to be home.”

“Now that you’re here, it is finally starting to feel like home again.”

“Brother...”

Fergus, up until necessity dictated Gideon take up the mantle of hero, was always the more personable brother (Gideon was always friendly and flirtatious, but if you wanted a business deal or to a please diplomat, you sought out Fergus. If you wanted to please a diplomat’s _son,_ that was a different tale), and he proudly displayed that title now, diverting the attention to his other guest.

“I believe we met briefly in Denerim, correct?”

Zevran easily slipped into conversation, sauntering towards Fergus with a smile, “I believe we did, though I lacked the pleasure of a formal introduction, outside of ‘Gideon’s brother’ and ‘The other Cousland’.”

Fergus laughed, good sport that he was, “Well, I would be grateful to give it,” he held his hand out, “I am Teryn Fergus Cousland of Highever, and proud older brother our the illustrious Hero of Ferelden.”

Zevran took the proffered hand, “And I am Zevran Arainai.”

Gideon gave him a _look_ , and contrary to his early behavior, Zevran sighed, “Antivan Crow. Ex. Antivan Crow. Now partner and lover to the same ‘illustrious Hero of Ferelden’.”

Privy to the ways of his brother, Fergus didn’t bat an eye at the admission of their relationship.

“You’ve finally settled down, have you now?”

Gideon rubbed his beard with an amused smile, giving Zevran a warm look (not much unlike how Fergus used to look at Oriana), “I suppose you could say so. Getting a taste of responsibility will do that to you.”

“I’m glad to see it, brother. Now, did you only come for a visit, or did you have business to discuss?”

“I have something in mind about the servants...”

* * *

“This is your old bedroom?” Zevran said thoughtfully, inspecting the room with his fingers at his chin.

Gideon laughed at his behavior, following him in, “Indeed it was. You have no idea how many noble sons were in here, and left with shame.”

“I can imagine,” Zevan said with mirth, sitting down on the bed, “Am a break in tradition?”

He shook his head, joining him, “There were servant boys, stable boys, knights, soldiers...I think that once I got a dwarven merchant in here,” He chuckled at the memory, “They really are the perfect height.”

Zevran smiled, gently tugging his lover down onto the covers with him. He nuzzled his forehead into Gideon’s chest, and intertwined their ankles. “This truly is a marvelous home. It gives the feeling of being lived and loved in.”

“You should have seen it in it’s hay day!” Gideon said nostalgically, drawing Zevran closer, “There were soirees and banquets every other week, and there were musical performances in between. Every hearth was ablaze and children ran from here to there, pages and squires and...”

Zevran sighed sympathetically, patting his back, “And there was a family here, yes?”

“A loving, warm one...a kind father, a wise mother, and a sensible eldest son with his beautiful wife and child.”

“Was there another?”

“Yes,” he paused, biting his lip, “A reckless younger brother who cared more about his bedmates than cultivating his talents, and then left to become a Grey Warden.”

“Well, if I were to meet that younger brother, I would think he’s learned a great deal, and that his family, in the Maker’s arms, would be very proud of him,” he kissed Gideon’s cheek, “Because I know two people who very much are.”

“Zev,” Gideon’s voice wobbled, and he crushed the elf against him, “I don’t deserve you.”

“I know, but the Maker works in mysterious ways.”

Gideon smiled, kissing his forehead, “With you here, this really is home again.”

Zevran grinned under a light blush, “I’m glad to be of service, my dear Warden.”•

**Author's Note:**

> I do think my Cousland looked up to Old Nan, but even as a kid, he saw her treatment of elves as "Ehhhhhh...". DOn't worry, I imagine her getting better with it now that Zev is around.


End file.
